google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 Gerry Wildenberg

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Oct 9, 2013

Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 Gerry Wildenberg

Theme: Center Parting - as the hint clue explains the four theme answers reveal a hair-related word at the start and the end of each one.

17A. 1949 Olivia de Havilland film : THE HEIRESS. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.


25A. Home of the Clinton Presidential Library : LITTLE ROCK. It's a pretty spectacular bulding:


36A. Bead in a necklace : CULTURED PEARL. As opposed to ignorant ones?

49A. Sam's Choice, e.g. : STORE BRAND. I rarely shop at Wal-Mart so this didn't jump out at me right away. The theme definitely helped me get this one.

59A. Nitpick, and what this puzzle's circled letters represent : SPLIT HAIRS


Maidin Mhaith to you all; I thought I'd exercise my Irish a little this morning! I know some of you won't have had the circles printed in your particular newspaper but I don't think they were necessary for the theme to become apparent. I thought this was going to be very tricky - on my first pass I was drawing lots of blanks until I got to the SW, and then things started to fall into place.

It didn't help that I always forget whether Reba McEntire or Kelly Ripa was Regis Philbin's co-host, and I also forget that the clue will indicate whether we're looking for the first or the last name, so that left me pondering the last few letters of the fill for a couple of minutes, especially with crosses that were also unknowns.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. 10% donation : TITHE

6. "12 Angry Men" actor : COBB. Lee J. was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

10. Credit card bill nos. : A.P.R.'S. The Annual Percentage Rate. Some credit cards have extraordinarily high ones.

14. Lucy's landlady : ETHEL

15. __ code : AREA. 818 in my case.

16. Sodium hydroxide, on a chem test : NaOH. Sodium's symbol "Na" comes from the Latin Natrium, which begs the question why we didn't name just the element that?

19. Kathryn of HBO's "Oz" : ERBE. No idea. Perps.

20. Dermatologist's concerns : RASHES.

21. Rowboat propeller : OAR

23. "Where __ sign?" : DO I

24. Cold drink brand : ICEE. I only needed four crosses to nail this one.

29. White House tween : SASHA. I usually blank on the Obama's kids. More perps to the rescue.

31. Delightful time : GAS. I had GAY initially until BESOTS came along.

32. Singer Shore : DINAH

33. Pope of 903 : LEO V. Crosses needed to decide between the possible I, V or X choices. I'm assuming there weren't enough Leos to get up into L or C territory.

35. Van Cleef & __: French jeweler/perfumer : ARPELS. Perps. Never head of this partnership. Interesting-looking watches though.



40. Small sword : RAPIER. Small as in slim, not short.

41. Corduroy ridges : RIBS

42. "__ Is Born" : A STAR. Barbra Streisand's Emmy-winning "Evergreen" was the theme.

43. Double-helix molecule : DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid is a bit of a mouthful, but it does have an elegant structure.



44. Coke and Pepsi : SODAS. Could easily have been COLAS also, so I waited for the crosses. Lots of waiting for crosses for me today.

52. Dramatic opening? : MELO. Was Romeo being melodramatic in 55A?

53. Blackguard : CAD

54. Small pop group : DUO

55. When, in Act III, Romeo cries, "O, I am fortune's fool!" : SCENE I

57. Course for Crusoe?: Abbr. : ANAG. I was wondering which direction Crusoe would have sailed to get from Chile to Más Atierra, and then realized Oh! Course is the anagram of  Crusoe.

62. Actor Jared : LETO

63. What NHL shootouts resolve : TIES

64. Mountain ridge : ARÊTE

65. Galley order : STET. Enjoyed the misdirection here. Galley proofs are edited before going forward to final typesetting and publication.


66. Sound that fits this puzzle's theme : SNIP. "Bonus" tie-in.

67. Outmoded : PASSÉ

Down:

1. Shape-fitting game : TETRIS, This was all the rage at one time. I never played it, but I knew people who spent hours and hours playing it. It is credited with driving sales of the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy.

2. Cayuga Lake city : ITHACA.

3. Ph.D. hurdles : THESES

4. Dastardly chuckle : HEH HEH. Dick Dastardly's dog Muttley has the best chuckle:


5. Gen. Robert __ : E. LEE

6. Train unit : CAR

7. Mineral resource : ORE

8. Stupefies with drink : BESOTS. This was interesting - I'd never thought of it in this context before; I'd always associated BESOT with falling hopelessly in love.

9. __ metabolic rate : BASAL. Used to calculate how many calories your body burns when at rest.

10. "Wheel of Fortune" buy : AN "E"

11. The president, vis-à-vis one Thanksgiving turkey : PARDONER. I always think it's odd that the president "pardons" a turkey - it's not as if the turkey did anything wrong! At school we studied Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale - I can still remember the opening lines:

"In Flanders whilom was a company
Of younge folkes, that haunted folly,
As riot, hazard, stewes, and taverns;"

12. Autodialed electioneering tactic : ROBOCALL. Learning moment for me - I didn't know this word.

13. Arab tribal leaders : SHEIKHS. I stopped short after "SHEIK--" - I couldn't figure out why there were two spaces left and only one S in my hand!

18. Map speck: Abbr. : ISL. You can't get much more of a speck than this - the world's smallest populated isle (in Rhode Island).


22. Right, as a wrong : REDRESS

26. Lab assistant of film : IGOR. This clip from "Young Frankenstein" explains the correct pronunciation:


27. Greek café : TAVERNA

28. Longtime Philbin co-host : RIPA

30. Took in or let out : ALTERED

34. Andorra's cont. : EUR. Andorra's also a bit of a map-speck in Europe.

35. Msg. to the whole squad : A.P.B. The All-Points Bulletin usually contains details of a suspect to be detained if seen.

36. Hand-held clicker : CASTANET. I couldn't get the "people counter" clicker out of my mind for quite some time.

37. Current : UP-TO-DATE

38. Perjurer : LIAR

39. Gorilla observer Fossey : DIAN

40. "Good Lovin'" group, with "the" : RASCALS. I wasn't familiar with this song, nor the group.

43. Stop by unannounced : DROP IN

45. 1998 British Open champ Mark : O'MEARA. He beat Brian Watts by two strokes in a four-hole playoff.

46. Declares untrue : DENIES

47. Warnings : ALERTS

48. "That's quite clear" : SO I SEE

50. Some gallery statuary : BUSTS

51. Summer hrs. : D.S.T. It always makes me smile that there is somehow a way to "save" daylight by shifting the clocks around by an hour.

56. English guy : CHAP

58. Caught on to : GOT

60. Floral chain : LEI

61. AOL, e.g. : I.S.P. Internet Service Provider. We seem to have seen this a lot recently.

That's about it from me. As the sari saleslady said to her customer - "It's a wrap!"

Steve 

63 comments:

OwenKL said...

When a knight from New Joisy (let me stress,
This was not a knight ready for chess)
Located Rapunzel,
O'er her hair he did stumble;
"I can't rescue a maid in dis TRESS!"

Three bears were first on their block
With webcams on watch 'round the clock.
Key cards they thought fine,
They went top-of-the-line
On their door was installed a gold e-LOCK!

The bounder, the villain, the churl
Had a mustache his fingers would twirl
When he leered at poor Nell
With that sneer she knew well
Both his 'stache and his lip he would CURL!

A project Doctor Watson had planned
To get Sherlock known through the land.
He'd write stories with a basis
In their hair-raising cases,
And publish them all in the STRAND!

King Solomon was known everywhere
To be wise, and to show it with flair.
He worked out conundrums
Like one babe who had two Mums
To solve it he resolved to SPLIT HEIR.

DNF for me today. The NE corner had names I don't know: ERBE, RIPA, ARPELS; lack of perps kept me from getting ROBOCALL or APRS. 10d AN E was just unfair. Legal, just unjust.

I spent my working life on graveyard, and even though I'm retired for a decade+, I'm still a night-owl. Since I started following this blog, I've switched from doing the puzzle in the paper to doing it online, and then writing the verses. They generally take longer to compose than the puzzle took to work. Then the hardest part -- waiting for 2 or 3 hours until the daily entry is posted before I can put the poems online. No, I take that back, the hardest part is waiting 12 hours before looking at the comments again, ego-scanning to find if this is finally the day I've posted some clunkers.

Anonymous said...

This Gerry Wildenberg, today's composer. Two comments:

1. I submitted this without the circles.

2. Now that I've done the puzzle after not looking at it for several months, I see that some of the names are not easy. Thus adding the circles was probably a good idea.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and welcome to the blog, Gerry)!

This played a bit hard for a Wednesday, and having circles definitely would have helped me get the theme.

SHEIKH with a final H, NAOH, ARPELS and TAVERNA were all stumbling blocks today. I had no idea that Kathryn ERBE was in "OZ" but knew her from "Law & Order: SVU" so I was able to guess after a perp or two.

STORE BRAND has me mystified for a while since I've never shopped at Sam's Club before.

Almost turfed it entirely at the crossing of GOT and STET until I finally realized that "course" was an ANAGram of "Crusoe" and that the "galley" in question was neither a ship nor a kitchen.

[rasedcr]

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Steve and friends. Thanks for stopping by, Gerry. Fun puzzle and interesting theme. I found nothing to SNIP at today.

I never watched OZ, but i knew Kathryn ERBE from one of the Law and Order series.

I visited the Clinton Library in LITTLE ROCK once when I was in that city for business. It was quite interesting.

My favorite clue was Dramatic Opening = MELO even though I am generally not so keen on this type of cluing. Maybe I found it so amusing because, as Steve hinted at, it was directly above 55-Across.

Owen: You are too funny! Not only do you create marvelous limericks, but i laughed at your comment about having to wait 12 hours to read the comments!

QOD: Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. ~ John Lennon (Oct. 9, 1940 ~ Dec. 8, 1980)

[rrieeti]

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

No way around it, a DNF for me today. The two misdirections "Galley" and "Crusoe", along with the unknown Leto, left me sufficiently stumped to turn on red letters just to get Got.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gerry Wildenberg, for a swell puzzle. Also, welcome to the blog. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

This puzzle was very easy in certain sections, but very hard in others. I had no circles, either. The theme answers came easily, but not the theme itself.

My tough sections were the NE and the SW. Did not know ERBE or ARPELS. I could not see PARDONER. Had all the letters except the first R. DNF for me today.

In the SW STET was unknown and I missed the ANAGram. Got them with perps.

35 degrees in Johnsonburg this morning. Getting real close to a frost. Away from the house there might be a frost here and there.

Much to do. See you tomorrow.

As always, great poem OwenKL.

Abejo

(monkshi

thehondohurricane said...

GRRRR Dang it, (is this ok Mr Creosote?)

I was having a enjoyable day with Mr Wildenberg's puzzle until reaching the SW corner where I crashed and burned. And I'm guessing I won't be the only one fessin up to a DNF today.

The killer was 58D GOT, which I entered initially and then for some forgotten rationale, changed to Saw. At that point Anas, Leta, & Stew made as much sense to me as did ANAG, LETO. & STET.

I was surprised there were not others errors. TAVERNA sounds more Spanish then Greek to me, I was sure SHEIKHS was wrong, & ARPELS/RIPA was a wag..

Today is my initial fun event clearing leaves, and likely will continue until the week of Thanksgiving. The Oaks like to hang on, seemingly forever.





Anonymous said...

Got ANAG, but didn't get it. Did not get ANE-could have been ANA, ANI, ANO, ANU-calling a Natick on that crossing with ERBE! Clever theme, but slower than usual Wednesday solving experience.

kazie said...

I had similar problems to those of Hondo today. I thought 10D could have ended with any of the 5 vowels, and chose AN A, giving ARBE for the totally unknown ERBE. Same thing with RIPA/ARPELS, I went with RINA/ARNELS. Had SAW/GOT, STEW, LETO and ANAS in the SW corner.

I don't call this a DNF, since I finished it "my way", even if it was wrong. I DNF when I'm so completely stumped I can't think of any remotely sane things to fill in.

Good to see Gerry stop in. Welcome!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone. Good intro, Steve.

I let the circles help me with ST……RAND. But otherwise, I didn't need the theming for the solve. I thought of Galley for eats, so had STEw before STET. RASCALS was a WAG. Thought COBB was a great actor. Some great fill included CASTANET and PARDONER which had great cluing.
I hate ROBOCALLS, even if they are from my favorite congressman.

Have a great day.

HeartRx said...

Good morning fellow puzzlers!

Thanks for stopping by, Gerry. I thought your puzzle was really well-executed, with some tough little sections. Like others, I had to wait on several perps before deciding which letters to enter. As far as the circles go, I could take 'em or leave 'em. The reveal pointed me in the right direction to suss the theme.

Fine write-up, S.! I'm with you on the different use for BESOTS. But I guess both are correct.

OwenKL, very funny limericks - gold e-lock was priceless!

Happy hump day, everyone!

CanadianEh! said...

Good morning all. Needed some red letter help to finish SW as I had STEW for GALLEY ORDER. Sounds like I wasn't the only one thinking ship instead of newspaper.

We had a scandal about ROBOCALLS in the last Canadian federal election and some folks were misdirected to the wrong polling stations.

I was not familiar with APRS.

Mensa site did not have circles but I didn't need them to finish. Couldn't see the theme without them though.

Anagram for COURSE was tricky!

PARDONER for the Thanksgiving turkey was timely as Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up this Monday.

OwenKL: no clunker today. Great!

kazie said...

I forgot to say too that I enjoyed today's offering overall, and I got the theme early, but like others, I didn't really need it for the solve.

I also wanted to say, Steve, if you hadn't heard of ROBOCALLS you are extremely lucky. I don't know how many times I've shouted obscenities into the phone when they start their ravings.

Montana said...

Good Morning, everybody,

I have to say that I got to feel like you Master Solvers do, on Fridays and Saturdays. I got it done!! I didn't breeze through it like on a Monday, but I moved quickly, using vertical clues when necessary and got the ta-da, straight away. Wish I could solve like this at the end of the week!?!

Dinah Shore was a relative by marriage. She was my aunt's sister-in-law. She was a nice person to have around until she became famous.

Beautiful day here on the eastern prairie of MT. We only get yellow colored leaves but they started turning color the last two days and it is pretty out.

I love Indian Summer!

Montana

Montana said...

Forgot to say that I remembered to look for a theme and 'got' it before I even finished the puzzle. The circles helped for the theme but weren't necessary for solving.

Montana

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was another quick solve...right up to the DNF. I thought "Where ____ sign" was one of those Where Am I / You Are Here signs that they post in shopping malls. PARDONER changed that "A" to a "D", but I failed to notice. So my ROBOCALLS were ROAMCALLS and the unknown-to-me ERBE was ARAE. What a mess! As Scarlet said, "...tomorrow is another day."

Owen, I liked dis TRESS and gold e-LOCK. Very cute.

Gerry, thanks for dropping by. Looks like you stumped a bunch of us today.

Martin said...

I did not know COBB, BASAL, RIPA or ARPELS. I didn't know "squad" meant police so I didn't get APB either. I was thinking cheerleaders. I had SAW for GOT and thus ANAS, LETA and STEW for ANAG, LETO and STET.

desper-otto said...

From last night -- folks mentioned that yesterday was the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Very few people remember that on that same day the Great Peshtigo Fire was raging in eastern Wisconsin and on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. To this day it's the most deadly fire ever recorded in the U.S.

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Garry Wildenberg, for the lovely puzzle, which I enjoyed thoroughly and Steve for your humorous comments.

Thank you OWenKl for your most funny limericks, verse .... Loved gold E-locks and Dis-stress. ..... Really innovative and charming. Thank you .... My, what genius !!!!!

I Di not have circles, but stumbled onto the theme, anyway ... Just couldn't make head or hair out of it .....


Just wondering, does Clinton's library have a private room for the Monica section ?

Altho' theses was clued accurately, I always think in the singular for one of those things. Before computers and word processors, you had to pay almost 400 dollars to a typist to type one of those things.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted .... hah, so true. Try telling that to my wife......

Have a nice day, you all.

VirginiaSycamore said...

OMG!

Steve and everyone. I just had the best 10 minute laugh of my life.
After running the Muttley video I clicked on one called Dad at Comedy Barn.

The old guy in the yellow shirt has such a funny laugh that it breaks up the entire act for 7 minutes. You can't not laugh!

The URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z4Y4keqTV6w#t=16

I don't know how to embed in the blog, but you copy and paste it. Or just run Muttley then look for the yellow shirt in the middle of 2 red shirted men sitting in chairs.

Hope everyone has a laugh.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Swell work, Gerry! Great expo, Steve!

No cheats. but took more time than the usual Wednesday!

Kathryn ERBE was in Law and Order Criminal Intent rather than SVU.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

That "spectacular" Presidential library looks like an extra long house trailer!

Spitzboov said...

Virginia S's imbed

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody! Hands up for this being harder than usual for a Wednesday. I had the same stumbles as many others. I wasn't crazy about the anagram clue but everything else was fun.

Hi Gerry. It's good to hear from you.

Virginia, I really enjoyed your video with the funny laugher. It kept me going too. Very infectious.

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

I finished w/o help but needed some perps in some areas. I "got" anag but didn't "get" it until reading Steve's great expo. With the circles, the theme announced itself before even seeing the unifier. Thanks, Gerry, for a fun solve and for stopping by.

Are any of my fellow New Yorkers subjected to the barrage of loud, unpleasant tv ads for Fuccillo's cars? I hit the mute button because I can't bear listening to them.

Thanks to Owen for starting our day on a happy note.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

Good to see you, Steve. Circles? There were circles? Today the Wall Street Journal was delivered instead of The Arizona Republic so I printed the puzzle from the Webster site.

Not exactly easy puzzle today, but not too hard, either. I sashayed through it until the NE and SW corners. Started with CALIPHS until SHEIKHS appeared. Like Hahtoolah and others ERBE was familiar from Law and Order, CI.

Van Cleef & ARPELS had a commercial long, long ago and the name is embedded in my memory.

Great job, Gerry, and thank you for stopping by.

If anyone is unfamiliar with ROBOCALLS, consider yourself lucky! They are annoying and irritating.

Have a beautiful Wednesday, everyone!

Lucina said...

OwenKL:
Briliant poem today!

Maverick said...

Drat! I had GOT as my 1st choice on 58D. I was asea on the Crusoe clue, thought it was LETO but was not confident, didn't get the Galley STET connection. So I changed it to SAW to at least get an order of STEW from the Galley. Lots of tricky 4-letter names. Got ERBE with a lucky guess on the Wheel vowel. Thought of "HANK" Fonda and Lee "Marvin" first before the perps gave me COBB. I thought the "Gorilla Lady" was Diane or Dinah so the 4-letter limit stumped me until the crosses gave me DIAN. I was also "puzzled" by 1D because Tangos or Tangoe (actually Tangoes) came to mind first.

buckeyebob said...

VirginiaSycamore @10:27 am: your YouTube video was hilarious! My laugh for today. Thank you!

Misty said...

Bit of a Wednesday toughie today, but since I love CIRCLES I still found it a lot of fun. So, thanks Gerry, and also for checking in.

First, I loved all the T and H and E letters in the NW corner. But they almost created a problem when, even before reading Steve's comments, I got SPLIT HEIRS down below and started to worry that the puzzle wouldn't be about HAIRS, as I thought, but about HEIRS. I also didn't register that the HAIRS split between the beginnings and ends of the clues until I read Steve's expo.

I liked the Chaucer reference, Steve, and I would not have understood ANAG and STET even though I actually got them.

Wanted SOLO instead of MELO at first, but came around after a while.

Owen, our limericks are just getting better and better.

Have a great Wednesday, everybody!

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Wonderful write-up & links (esp.The RASCALS).

Gerry: Thank you for a FUN Wednesday. Personally, I would have enjoyed it more without the circles (How you originally submitted).
BTW, I hate puzzles with circles. Generally the "circle gimmick" has little payoff. JMHO

Fave today (of course) was BESOTS.
I wonder what it's like to "Stupefies with drink" ... lol

Cheers!!!

CrossEyedDave said...

VirginiaSycamore @10:27 am: OMG, that made my face hurt! :)

I had to finish the puzzle in 2 sections, after a 2 hour break. This was one of those rare (for me) puzzles where the theme helped me finish it. The 1st section was pretty straight forward, but the 2nd half was all WAGs

I came to the Blog to see where I made a mistake as I could not parse "soisee." (I thought it was French..) It was a surprise to see that I finished the SE corner correctly.

It was also a surprise to find out I misspelled Tetras, Ethyl, & Thesis. It was no surprise that I misspelled arbe, (that was a total Natick) & disappointing that I also put "stew" for Galley order. Now I have to dig the puzzle out of the garbage, because I must see what on earth I put for 58 Down.

Oh, & I put Leo the first instead of fifth. (I dunno, Taierna seems like perfect Greek to me...)

I saw this on Facebook this morning, & thought you might enjoy it.

Oh, & it is about time I commented on OwenKLs wonderful limericks. Sorry for the delay, but I have been busy as you have made me try to get my links to rhyme. (without success.)

John V said...

Natick at ANE/ERBE

Bill G. said...

Quiz
1) What is the following word when it is unscrambled? H C P R A A T E U
2) Two men, starting at the same point, walk in opposite directions for 4 meters, turn left and walk another 3 meters. What is the distance between them?
3) Which same three-letter word can be placed in front of each of the following words to make a new word?
SIGN, DONE, DUCT, FOUND, FIRM, TRACT, DENSE
4) A rectangle has two and a hexagon has nine. How many does a triangle have? An octagon?

(Please disguise or e-mail your answers so you don't spoil the challenge for others.)

Here's the always enjoyable Animal Tracks slide show. Animal Tracks

CrossEyedDave said...

BillG Answers:

1) Klaatu Barada Nikto

2) Africa

3) Uni

4) Triangle = none, octagon = 12

Pls relink yr animal tracks, or update yr copy...

Spitzboov said...

Where are you if you travel 10 nm South, 35 nm West and 10 nm North and you are at the point of beginning?

CONdone, CONsign, etc.

Tinbeni said...

Bill G
1) I'll wear one when I jump out of a plane.
2) I'll have to ask Pythagoras.
3) I'm not PRO ... I must be ...

"Animal Tracks" looks a lot like "Dad at Comedy Barn" ...

Anonymous said...

Definition puzzle again tomorrow?

Unknown said...

Could someone point out to Tinbeni that Bill G. asked that people refrain from giving obvious answers? Lots of people no doubt knew the answers, but I'm sure an equal amount didn't. Thanks for spoiling it.

River Doc said...

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Close but no cigar - DNF 4 Da Doc today. AUTODIAL was my Waterloo, proven incorrect by red letters. No circles on the iPad either....

Other temporary errors were DAGGER for RAPIER, COLAS for SODAS, CUR for CAD, and THESIS for THESES....

Bill G. - nice article on Sofia Vergara in the USA Today today....

Owen LK - favorite limerick was the SherLOCK Holmes one....

Bill G. said...

Oops, let's try that Animal Tracks again. I must have copied the Comedy Barn link and forgotten to replace it with the Animal Tracks URL. Sorry.

Spitz, I think I'll need a sweatshirt instead of my usual tee shirt.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Sort of a mixed-bag puzzle today: some nifty fill such as SHEIKHS and CASTANET, and some nose wrinklers such as AN E and ANAG. As pointed out already, if you didn't know ERBE there is no way you could know if that contestant bought an A, E, I, O, U, or even Y.
I laughed when CED said "soisee" looked like French, because it does!
Owen, I liked your rhymes today. Thank you for putting in the effort to compose them for us.
Best wishes to you all.

CrossEyedDave said...

Bill G.

There was no one else home, so I asked my cat for help. This is what she said...

Re: Kid playing guitar,,,

I had never heard of "drifting" or Andy McKee before, & it is turning out to be a real learning experience. Here is Andy McKee doing the original "Drifting."

(Another learning moment was the 1st commenter was right, skip to 5:18 to save time)

So, I am looking at his guitar in this video thinking "they must have used a fish eye lens," & then I noticed the Bridge. (Splynter might be interested) it is at an extreme angle. I was going to ask the Blog if anyone knew what was going on, when a little more research provided an answer. (Once again, the 1st commenter is right.)

Fanned Frets? Who Knew?
I always had trouble tuning my guitar just right, & gave up thinking I had a tin ear & just tuned it before each individual song for best sound. Who knew there was a solution???

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This was a fun puzzle for me despite not knowing most of the names. I did know RIPA. Thanks, Gerry. Good one, Steve! You're on a roll Owen.

I got the theme with circles early which helped on Split Hairs & SNIP.

"The Heiress" was a favorite movie as a child, although I didn't really understand it. I'm surprised I was allowed to see it. It was on TV recently and I forgot to watch it.

My late grass planting project is not doing well. I don't think I have even one seed geminated from planting two weeks ago. Winds have kept me from keeping the seed beds wet. And I'm wondering if the spray from a month ago would kill the fescue
as it emerges?

I am thrilled with the pavers my hired men put down for me. Now I can trot over to the hydrant without getting mud on my shoes.

Jayce said...

PK, hydrant? Don't you have indoor plumbing? hahaha, just kidding, but it's a fun mental image.

Man oh man, it seems Yahoo is messing around with their mail again. Trying to improve it, I suppose, but as usual they glitched it up. More "new & improved" features to get used to. (*sigh*)

CED, don't fret, man.

CrossEyedDave said...

Ack! I got so excited about the guitar, that I forgot to Honor The Theme with some sillyness.

Unfortunately, there is way too much material to choose from...

Irish Miss said...

Bill G. - As usual, great Animal Tracks. Liked the lazy lions and the panda cubs the best. Thanks!

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Not a total speed run for me today, but no lookups. I did have a question or two which cleared up with Steve's excellent writeup. Anag. was one--oh! Anagram!. I thought for sure I had something that was incorrect.

Tetris was a complete unknown. I'm afraid my children were all grown up when it came to all the electronic games out there. However, the word filled in nicely with the perps.

Since I had tress, and lock in I could fill in some of the circles with what I though would spell another word related to hair. The last two theme answers came as a result of that guessing.

Van Cleef & Arpels came easily as that name comes up in the fine jewelry discussions in some of the antique classes that I've taken, though I don't OWN any of that very lovely jewelry.

With a large meeting here at my house last night, I have been so busy that I haven't had time to write on the blog, though I have read it every day and finished the puzzle--sometimes after dinner.

Have a great evening everyone.

Chickie said...

Owen, Another great collection of pomes.

Nice to hear from you Gerry Wilderberg. Fun puzzle today.

It is fun to see my husband's Master's Thesis in our University library. There is one whole section devoted to those theses written by the students from the University. And yes, we had to pay a LOT to have his paper typed. (Well before the time of word processors) We didn't have a lot of extra money so it was a real hardship to come up with the cash.

Jayce said...

Chickie, very cool that your husband's Master's Thesis in your university library. What university is that? What's his thesis about?

fermatprime said...

Chill, folks. Answers to Bill quiz here are in error except for one obvious partial! Feel free to send Bill correct answers!

fermatprime said...

PS I typed both my husband and my PhD theses (over and over). A real slog. His was very long. Who could afford typists? This was roughly 47 years ago.

Bill G. said...

CED, I agree that it is difficult to tune a guitar well. Old strings are a common culprit. Those fanned frets may be a great innovation or maybe not. The classical guitars played by Segovia, John Williams, Julian Bream, Christopher Parkening, etc. are all made by Ramirez and cost about $5000 20 years ago. None of them have fanned frets.

Guess what? I just got a ride around the block in a new Tesla electric car from a nice lady I just met. Very fast, very quiet and very cool! The car of course, not the lady.

GarlicGal said...

Jayce, Probably San Jose State. I know both Chickie and Bill went to school there.

Husker Gary said...

Long day on the course today but l just finished the puzzle which I loved working but one in which I really doubt I would never have gotten the theme sans circles. anE/Erne crossing only was my only close call. Thanks for Gerry’s DROP IN and all the fun comments from my puzzling friends.

Chickie said...

Jayce, It is the Martin Luther King Library on the campus at San Jose State U. He did his Masters on Mockingbird song--innate or acquired song?

Jayce said...

GarlicGal and Chickie, thank you.

PK said...

Jayce, I'm trotting back and forth to my outdoor hydrant in an effort to grow grass. LOL! I am fortunate enough to have indoor plumbing, a luxury both my parents were raised without.

Manac said...

No circles for me but didn't need them to finish the puzzle, just didn't get the theme.
A little help here please. The comment section here changed its resolution to very small print. I can hardly read it. My computer is still set at the same screen resolution setting. It is only the comment section. Has anyone else noticed this or did I screw up big time?
My guru won't be back til this weekend and I really don't want hear him tell me what an idiot his father is if I can help it :-)

Bill G. said...

Manac, sorry that I can't help. Mine looks the same as always so maybe you accidentally changed something? If you restart, does it go back to normal?

I know you can make the page bigger or smaller. What browser are you using? If you go under Preferences, there will be a setting to change the font and the size.

OwenKL said...

Manac: [Ctrl]+[-] makes print smaller, [Ctrl]+[+] makes it larger, and [Ctrl]+[0] resets it to default size. Some programs those will work with images, too. They're controlled by the program so there are exceptions, but they're as universal [Ctrl]+[X],[C]&[V] for cut, copy and paste.

Anonymous T said...

Good Eve All:

Today's puzzle fell apart below the Mason-Dixon Line. I had Mother of Pearl at 36a and I wouldn't let it go away (that's my best attempt at rhyme OwenKL).

BG - I know I am one lucky guy :-)

Jayce - I think I owe you a happy birthday wish a day late. That's me - a day late and a buck short...

Yesterday everyone talked about horoscopes. I wrote this last week. Read it in a monotone voice:

I read my horoscope at the end of the day...
That way I know
if I got it right.

DW said keep my day job :-)

Thanks all for your fun posts - it's been the dversion I've needed between doctors & testers.

And finally a curse(o) to DeFoe's Crusoe. Those jokes don't go down well with this dyslexic :-)

Cheers,

-T

Bill G. said...

AnonT, I like your horoscope poem, adage, random thought or whatever...